Sarasota Home Displays a Fusion of Modern Tech, Artwork, and Style

Art collector turns waterfront home into his personal masterpiece with the help of ELAN and Lutron systems.

With exquisite artwork, a comprehensive wine collection, and a keen eye for modern design, two Sarasota, Fla., homeowners decided to push their smart home beyond industry convention. To enhance the home’s art, architecture, and interior design with modern technology, they put their 17,000-square-foot home in the hands of SmartHouse Integration’s Mark van den Broek to design and install a complete home management infrastructure that fuses new-wave design with modern smart home functionality. At the center of it all is an ELAN Entertainment and Control System that serves as the home’s central hub to guarantee complete control and remote accessibility.

A marriage of design and technology

“Beyond installing the usual smart home functions, such as temperature, lighting, audio/video and security control, I was called upon to utilize lighting to emphasize and highlight the homeowner’s displayed art collection,” van den Broek says. “This project showcases how technology integration truly merges with interior design.”

To serve as the backbone of the entire smart home infrastructure, van den Broek installed an ELANSystem Controller, which the homeowner can access through eight ELAN7-inch in-wall touchpanels, four smaller ELANtouchpanels, and three ELAN HR2 remotes. “Selecting a reliable smart home control system was essential to a project of this magnitude,” van den Broek emphasizes. “None of the critical design or functionality elements would be possible without a reliable controller.”

Lighting as a design element

When developing a design-centric home management system, van den Broek made lighting his number one priority. To sufficiently marry functionality and design, van den Broek integrated a Lutron HomeWorks lighting and shade control system with the ELAN Entertainment and Control System, guaranteeing that the lighting could function automatically, or be controlled by the homeowners from anywhere in the world. “I used lighting as design element in the same capacity that I use it as a functional element,” he says. “Throughout the home, the lighting evolves and changes to best enhance the art it emphasizes. Each application, depending on the exhibit it highlights or room it illuminates, is specifically catered to that space.”

To accentuate the homeowners’ art collection, light fixtures were strategically placed underneath or above them to enhance each piece. While art-enhancing light found in traditional galleries is usually stark white, van den Broek strived to stay away from harsh hues and rely on light more conducive to a residential setting. To do so, he played with the light’s consistency and power, automating them to fade and ramp up at specific times throughout the day. By doing this, he achieved an art gallery-like atmosphere. “When the sun begins to set, the lights slowly ramp up, incrementally highlighting the art as the sunlight continues to fade,” he explains. “It’s a truly stunning effect.”

Automated, illuminated orb is an eye-catching detail

One of the home’s most distinctive art pieces, the Orb- a kinetic aircraft aluminum sculpture designed by Chuck Hoberman- utilizes light as part of its playful interaction of electrical engineering and design. Positioned from the ceiling of the home’s grand salon (or living area), the Orb shifts and expands, giving the illusion that the fixture is alive and breathing. To complement the shifting nature of the piece, van den Broek installed RGD LED controllable lighting in a circular configuration around the piece. From any ELAN touchpanel or remote, the homeowners can initiate the Orb’s movement or change the color and frequency of the lighting. “The effect is quite hypnotic,” the homeowners agree. “The lighting is spectacular and sets the mood of the room. With the touch of the button, we can change the lighting or the speed of the Orb’s movement from anywhere in the home.”

Smart wine cellar—lights, temperature, and security in sync

As avid wine connoisseurs, the homeowners asked for a functional and well-lit wine cellar that was both fully automated and discretely located. Thus, van den Broek installed a network of security, lighting, and temperature control elements, all of which are accessible to the homeowners through the ELAN app on a smartphone or tablet. When the wine cellar is opened with a password, white light illuminates the labels on the wine bottles. Additionally, temperature control guarantees that the room remains between 56 and 59 degrees Fahrenheit; if it strays outside of this range, the homeowners receive an email notification.

“The wine cellar’s interplay of light, security, and temperature control truly represents the marriage of design and function,” van den Broek notes. “This micro smart system–set within the confines of a much larger system–improves the user experience by giving very close attention to detail.”

Accolades from an interior designer

To tie the home’s functional lighting in with modern décor, van den Broek worked closely with interior designer Pamela Hughes of Hughes Design Associates to ensure that certain accent areas were sufficiently highlighted. According to Hughes, the orchestration of lighting and design is crucial for the home’s interior décor. “Beautifully designed lighting highlights my work,” Hughes says. “You could be the best interior designer in the world, but if the lighting isn’t good, the project will fall flat. I worked closely with SmartHouse Integration to ensure that all overhead lighting served as a design element in its own right.”

Powerful audio travels housewide

The homeowners also love to entertain. That’s why van den Broek designed and installed a whole home, multi-room, indoor/outdoor audio system with the audio power to potentially “blow the doors off the place.” Due to the 18-foot ceilings in the grand salon, van den Broek chose to forgo in-ceiling speakers to avoid the risk of sounding faint. Instead, he relied on two Sunfire Atmos Subwoofers to get the job done and achieve the powerhouse system the homeowners requested. “Even without in-ceiling speakers, small and compact Sunfire Atmos subwoofers propel sound to create an impactful and entertaining audio experience,” van den Broek explains. “They may be small, but they pack a lot of punch.”

Protection of the smart infrastructure

To protect the home’s extensive smart home infrastructure from power surges, van den Broek installed four Panamax M4315 Pros with BlueBOLT remote energy management as well as two Panamax MB850and two Panamax MB1500 Uniterruptible Power Supply units. “BlueBOLT allows me to manage the home’s power as well as service the home remotely,” van den Broek says. “For example, if the cable box isn’t working, I can reboot it from anywhere in the world with the touch of a button. This product is optimal for maintaining network health.”

Overall, the homeowners are thrilled with every element of the home’s technological design. “I have used smart home control systems before, and ELAN is by far the easiest and most reliable,” the homeowner concludes. “Between ELAN’s reliability and Mark van den Broek’s superb design skills, my home embodies the ultimate ‘wow’ factor while still maintaining a high degree of user-friendly efficiency.”